Danger Zone
by Hannahmayski
Summary: Kurenai grins and looks down at her team. Well, if she's going to teach them, she's going to do it right. Or: Team 8 are terrifying, but they've learned from the best.


**Fic Title Meme asks (that keep turning into mini fics so they're on here now too)**

 **Summary: Kurenai grins and looks down at her team. Well, if she's going to teach them, she's going to do it right.**

 **or**

 **Team 8 are terrifying, but they've learned from the best.**

* * *

When the Sandaime calls Kurenai to his office again, she isn't sure what to expect. She's been Jounin for a grand total of 6 months and sure, she's run a few harder missions here and there but nothing out of the ordinary has happened. She walks up the stairs, trawling through the last six months, trying to find anything that might warrant the Sandaime's attention.

She's a few metres from the door and has thought of nothing.

She breathes in and out, careful not to make it too obvious to the two ANBU at the door.

She's a Jounin now. She's worked hard for this. Whatever the Sandaime throws at her, she can take.

stepping into his office, she kneels to the ground and bows her head. "Sandaime-sama," she greets carefully.

The Sandaime chuckles, the sound rough and worn. "At ease, at ease," he mumbles shuffling paper around his desk. "It's too early for so much formality."

Well. He doesn't seem angry. But the Sandaime is about as readable as a brick.

Kurenai stands up and clasps her hands behind her back, looking upon the Sandaime with more apprehension in her chest than there should be.

"I am sorry to throw this at you, Yuuhi."

Kurenai swallows.

"I'm giving you a Genin team," the Sandaime says, levelling her with a stare that's a thousand layers of complicated.

Kurenai opens her mouth and wants to say a million things - _I'm not a good choice, I'm not experienced enough, there a many other Jounin more qualified than me._

She holds her tongue, takes a small breath, and thinks about all the work she's put in to get here. She's a Jounin now, and she has been given an order.

"Understood," she says instead and tries to ignore the thin layer of sweat forming at her palms.

The Sandaime watches her for a moment, and like reading her mind he sighs and the smile wipes from his face. "I believe you'll do a better job than most. Don't let me down, Yuuhi."

"Sir," Kurenai says and this is really, really not what she expected, but the Sandaime _trusts_ her.

Kurenai didn't come this far to only let her Hokage down.

It's late afternoon when Kurenai meets her team, and all that doubt surges to the surface like a tidal wave.

These are children. Impressionable children. Kurenai has never been that great with children, and suddenly she has three tiny, tiny Genin looking up at her with wide eyes.

"You have to pass my test before I can teach you," she says and watches little Hinata's face pinch with worry. "If you pass, you become my students. If you fail, you go back to the academy."

Kiba bounces on the balls of his feet, and Shino's hands have yet to emerge from his pockets.

Kurenai wonders how the hell this is going to work.

"You have the rest of the day to find me, and tag me," she says. Kiba nods along enthusiastically. They are only Genin, but Kurenai isn't going to go easy on them.

She takes a step back, smiles, and shunshins out of the area.

She isn't sure if they'll make it. Hinata's self-esteem is so low she's sure Shino's bugs would have a better opinion of themselves. She's afraid to speak up, afraid to stand up straight, afraid to try. It makes Kurenai want to skin someone alive. She can see Hinata could be a shinobi that entire nations would fear one day, and having someone's potential stomped on because of others just makes her _angry._

Shino is distant and reserved and seems to want to pick a fight with Kiba at every given moment. Kurenai can see an incredible shinobi under that hood with the right push, but it's hindered by his unwillingness to open up to his teammates.

Kiba is too loud, too brash. But there's underlying anxiousness under the surface. Self-doubt that he's trying not let anyone on to. Kurenai can see potential there. She can see a lot of it. But there is a lot she needs to smooth out.

Her team - and really, they're not even her team yet - need a lot of work.

For the first three hours, there are arguments and lots of awkward conversations. Kiba's smell is good, but he can't cover all the possible terrain. Hinata strains her eyes through the trees but she can only see so far and neither can Shino's bugs.

It takes them over four hours but the next time Kurenai lets them get a little closer to her, they're working together. It's a crude system and Kiba and Shino can't stop glaring at each other and Hinata looks so nervous Kurenai wants to wrap her in blankets and not let another person touch her.

But they're _working together_ and Kurenai hadn't even needed to help them.

It takes them another three hours before they even get close to catching Kurenai and another hour for Hinata's hand to grasp Kurenai's skirt.

"Oh," Hinata whispers, staring at her hand where it's clenched around Kurenai's hair in a death grip.

"We did it!" Kiba cheers, jumping up and down.

Kurenai grins and looks down at her kids.

Well, if she's going to teach them, she's going to do it _right._

The Chuunin exams come fast and Kurenai looks upon her team and smiles. "Remember, you're far from the strongest team, so utilise every advantage. This is the Chuunin exams, there's time for being nice later."

Her team nods back. Maybe she's biased, but her team, her little team that everyone forgets about, overshadowed by the sheer insanity of Team 7, Team 10 consisting of the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho and Team 9 - which speaks for itself, is more prepared than any other Genin team.

She smiles as she watches them walk away.

"You looked pleased," Asuma says as he walks up beside her, and there's a hint of a tease there. Kurenai is the only female Sensei and horribly inexperienced compared to the likes of Asuma, Kakashi and Gai. She knew it wouldn't be easy.

But Kurenai decided a long time ago that that shouldn't matter. She has her team to look after, and nothing else matters.

"Of course I am," Kurenai says. "My kids are more than ready." She smiles back at him, all sweet and placid but Asuma would have to be another level of stupid not to see how damn serious Kurenai is.

He breathes out a puff of smoke and glances at her kids, and there's doubt there in his eyes. Stomping on his face would be inappropriate so she 'accidentally' stabs his foot with her heels as she walks past and doesn't look back.

* * *

The second phase has been in motion for 5 minutes when the first screams erupt from the forest and Kurenai _knows._

This is what she trained them for. This is what she taught them.

She revels in the looks Kakashi, Asuma and Gai send her as they realise it's her team. It's her kids that have made the first kills, and brought the first screams.

The Sandaime asked her to train shinobi, and so that's exactly what she did.

* * *

Team 8 pull through to the final fights.

Hinata is beaten bloody by the time she comes out of the arena, but she's smiling. She's smiling and she looks up at Kurenai and flashes her bloodied teeth.

"I did it, sensei," she says and Kurenai laughs because Hinata is a thousand kinds of fierce packed into a tiny little body. Kurenai has been trying to drag that ferociousness to the surface and it worked.

The memory of the other Genin's arms, blown off are fresh in everyone's minds. But the Chuunin exams are everything but easy, and Kurenai trained them to _fight._ Shino's hands are in his pockets, and despite the bruises upon bruises that must litter his skin, he keeps an easy gait to his walk. Anyone who thinks Shino isn't an opponent worth thinking about knows nothing about her kids.

Kiba and Akamaru come out grinning as though the large gash across Kiba's arm doesn't exist and he didn't prove himself to every single person watching the match.

Kiba is persistent and stubborn and Kurenai told him to utilise it. You give up when you're dead. Some might say teaching that to _Genin_ is a little extreme, but Team 8 will be running missions of their own soon enough and Kurenai will make sure they're are damn prepared in every way.

"You sure did," Kurenai says and ruffles all their hair.

Just as she knew they would.

* * *

It's a late afternoon and her kids a crashed out on her floor after training all day in preparation for the next stage of the exam when Kurenai realises she doesn't even like dresses that much.

She looks good in them, yes, but she only wore it because that's what they'd been taught in Kunoichi classes. She looks at herself in the mirror and knows it isn't what she wants.

She pulls on the standard issued pants and knows her mother would have frowned at her. _It's not what Kunoichi wear_ she would have said.

But Kurenai is tired of a lot of things, and doing things like wearing clothes she doesn't even like because of some unspoken rule is one of them.

Kiba takes one look at her when he groggily opens his eyes and nods along approvingly. "You look really good, Sensei," he says.

Her team is changing, getting stronger and growing up every day. It only makes sense that Kurenai changes along with them.

* * *

Kurenai isn't sure when the changing really starts. But she realises it's all paying off, when the expected yell of arrogant and disillusioned arrogance from Kiba doesn't come.

Instead Kiba stands up, pulls out another kunai and _smiles_. Too many teeth and too much glee in his eyes throws his opponent off enough for Kiba to swoop in, slicing right across his neck.

She notices the changes when Shino stands in front of Kiba and Hinata on mission like he could fight an entire army on his own if that meant keeping Hinata and Kiba alive.

She realises that her term, her kids, are changing when Hinata punches an opponent through a tree. There's a satisfied look on her face. She's done well. She's done immensely well and she knows it. She knows she's strong and she knows she doesn't need anyone's protection.

Team 8 have become strong and getting stronger. Team 8 are all fierce, strong and amazing. Team 8 are her _kids_ and they're forces to be reckoned with.

She smiles to herself, and ignores Kakashi's confused glances in her direction as he tries to 'subtly' walk past their training grounds.

Kurenai was asked to train shinobi, and she's never been good at doing anything halfway.

* * *

Kurenai clutches Kiba's Chuunin vest tightly in her hands as Kiba, barely awake with painkillers still making him groggy. He can't move much with the wound in his stomach.

Hinata and Shino are next to her, nervous energy radiating off them both.

They passed the exams.

They passed, just like Kurenai knew they would.

There's a look of panic that halts Team 8's big reveal to Kiba and Shino is the one to react first, hushing him gently and pointing to where Akamaru lays.

It takes Kiba a moment to catch up, but soon enough he's staring at the vests that they're now all wearing. Kiba opens his mouth, but Kurenai interrupts him, holding up the flak jacket.

Kiba stares at it a long, long moment. "Oh," he whispers, pain lacing his breath. He breaks out into a smile, relief crashing across his features.

The next few moments dissolve into a pile up of limbs and careful avoidance of injuries with loud, celebratory cheers.

Kiba tried to kill himself on that mission, and Kurenai is immensely glad he survived, but she can't help but be proud. Kiba was sent on a mission, put between a rock and a hard place, and showed Konoha exactly how much he was prepared to put into his job. Kiba showed the Hokage that death was only a mildly terrifying thought.

The other Jounin gave her odd looks that week. Some wary and some proud and some curious. Kurenai got all her Genin to Chuunin in what looked like to be an effortless task to onlookers.

Kurenai taught her kids, and she taught her kids well.

* * *

Kurenai brushes a piece of dirt off her pants, ignoring the looks the other Kunoichi give her about her new fashion choices - dressing like the men - and her heart strings pull.

Technically, Team 8 is no longer team 8. Kurenai's job is over. But she doesn't want it to be. Her kids are Chuunin, but if she could, she wants to do a thousand missions with them.

They're her kids, and there's still far they could develop.

"Sensei," a voice calls out and she looks up and sees Hinata walking up to her, trailed by Kiba and Shino.

They stand in front of her, so much taller, stronger, mature than when she first met them.

"We need your help," Shino says.

"There's a lot more we want to get better at," Kiba says, running a hand through Akamaru's fur.

And well, Kurenai should have seen this one coming. Team 8 will always be Team 8. After all, they're her team. They're her kids. And Chuunin or not, they'll always be her kids.

"Of course," she says and grins so hard her cheeks hurt. She cracks her knuckles and knows that her job is far from done. She still has to get her kids to Jounin, after all.


End file.
